Using Film to Teach Cultural Analysis Skills in L2: a Pragmatic Guide
Using Film to Teach Cultural Analysis Skills in L2: A Pragmatic Guide
Juan Caballero, Fall 2012 BLC Fellow
I am here presenting individually the products of almost entirely collaborative efforts. I would like to here acknowledge my generous contributors: • Katherine Lambe (Spanish & Portuguese) Piloted 5-lesson program in Spanish 4, co-wrote materials • Anna-Maria Belleza (BLC, Italian) Piloted a 2-day lesson in Italian 4, co-wrote and translated materials • Rick Kern (BLC, French) • Mark Kaiser (BLC, LFLFC, Slavic) • Marco Purpura (BLC, Italian) • Ellen Langer (BLC, Slavic) Presentation Overview
• Introduction: – Theoretical Framework and Scope – Curricular Context and Learning Goals – Utilizing Film Form and Basic Formal Analysis • Sample Lesson: Interiority and Melodrama (1/5) • Semester-scale Planning – Self-Training – Mapping out a Program (a 5-lesson sample sequence from Spanish 5) • [Sample Lesson: Prejudice and Documentary (4/5)] • Implications and Adaptability to Other Contexts
Introduction: Theoretical Framework and Scope
• Literacy-oriented language teaching makes knowledge of discourse genres and their codes a central goal of SLA – "Literacy is the use of socially-, historically-, and culturally-situated practices of creating and interpreting meaning through texts. It entails at least a tacit awareness of the relationships between textual conventions and their contexts of use…It draws on a wide range of cognitive abilities…on knowledge of genres, and on cultural knowledge." (Kern 2000: 16-17) – “Media-literacy” and “film literacy” versus literacy proper: the “reading” of audio- visual texts (according to the codes and conventions of film form) that supplements the spoken and written texts – For a recent theoretical and cognitive framework for film literacy and media literacy, see the work of the University of Western Australia's Mark Pegrum, in particular his 2008 article on film literacy • This presentation will show how advanced language students can be taught to read those “codes and conventions” critically in tandem with linguistic and literary ones, and how reflexivity in any one of the three modes supplements and reinforces reflexivity in the other two
Introduction: Defamiliarizing Film
• Film’s utility lies primarily in its familiarity—unlike literature, its codes and formal conventions are almost universally known by both instructors and students. – Many students come from high schools where literature and film were already taught in tandem in L1 • The downside to familiarity: habits of uncritical reading (“transparency” and entertainment value) – Affective filter difficulty of parsing every word spoken • The “A-ha moment” of seeing the familiar through more critical eyes Introduction: Curricular Context and Learning Goals
• Advanced language-courses are a pedagogical bridge between introductory language classes and “content” classes
Introduction: Curricular Context and Learning Goals
• Advanced language-courses are a pedagogical bridge between introductory language classes and “content” classes – Rudimentary literary analysis is usually the central (but rarely the exclusive) occasion for building “tacit awareness” of conventions and discourse genres at the advanced language level – Overlap in learning goals with critical-thinking and freshman-rhetoric courses – Most instructors and curriculum writers cite timidity and unfamiliarity with film pedagogy as the main reason for not exploiting film in this context • Students’ sophistication and reflexivity in “reading” films could (and should) develop in tandem with their reading of literature across this bridge, but rarely do Introduction: Teaching Literature and Film by Analogy
Figure 1: A few analogies between basic concepts of literary and film analysis
Concepts & topics in literary style Concepts & topics in filmic style
Narrative point of view (1st, 2nd, 3rd person; omniscient Perspectival camerawork ("P.O.V." shots, 180-shots, etc; versus subjective); Narratorial voice impersonal versus personal/subjective shots); subjective inflection, voice-over
Pace: Chapter/vignette boundaries, rhythm Pacing: scene boundaries, rhythm
Setting & Description ("material detail") Mise-en-scène & Design ("non-narrative detail")
Sympathy, interiority, subjectivity Sympathy, distance, centrality
Imagery, metaphor, trope, simile, emphasis Symbolism, analogy, metonymy, metaphor, foregrounding
The goal at this advanced level, as much for literature as for film or visual arts, should be working knowledge of basic critical concepts and passive fluency with critical modes of “reading”. Which begs the (potentially derailling) question: which are the “basic” concepts? What are the core questions and habits of thoughts that are appropriate to introduce at this level? Introduction: Teaching Analytic Habits of Thought
• Emphasize depth over breadth Levels of interpretation of a film – Depth: connecting formal to rhetorical and cultural analysis Language, events, and – Breadth: exhaustive formal Diegetic meaning within the fictional universe of a analysis film
• Emphasize argumentation as Extradiegetic Form, style, production goal of analysis – Tie discussion to writing or other Rhetorical Intended interpretation argumentative exercises or message
• Be reflexive and responsive Original audience's Cultural & cultural context vs. L2 about emphasis and focus Transcultural classroom context – Always fine-tune exercises along the way Introduction: Contextualizing Goals
Figure 2: Advanced Languages Courses as a curricular context with unique priorities
Relative curricular priorities for a given department’s deployment of film at the
level of… (A = highest)
…Upper
…Upper Language(critical skills)
Level of interpretation Language(immersion)
…Introductory
- div non div
(Spectrum from Approaches & Topics …Advanced -
"internal" to "external") Courses Film div
-
film Courses film
Language used by characters* Diegetic (within fictional universe of the film) A C D C Psychology of characters, realism of events
Extradiagetic (style, production) Film form, stylistic analysis D B A D
Intended message, impact, or influence on Rhetorical (intended interpretation) C A B A viewer
Unintended/accidental cultural content; Cultural & Transcultural (original audience's subtexts in contemporary history and culture B D C B cultural context vs. L2 class context) Comparing C1 context to C2 context Example Lesson 1: Interiority and Melodramatic Form Link to LFLFC
• Pre-viewing handout (taken home the day before) • Contextualizes clip as independent • Presents context and vocabulary for diagetic parsing, but also for exegetic and cultural level as well in the last box • Sketches out structure of discussion next day as an active, not passive, exercise with film
• Rough time breakdown and blackboard timetable: discussion should feel pre- structured yet open • Watch clip twice– distinguish diegetic from exegetic viewing • Numbered topics progress up the analytical spectrum (and imply directionality to students) • Terminology is never asked for explicitly in the questions, but instructor should reuse anything students volunteer and encourage dialogue between interpretations • Topics and questions heirarchized by importance/necessity – Includes multi-part questions, optional questions, etc • This first film assignment in the program establishes the expectation that film discussions will lead directly to thematic discussions and active, argumentative exercises • Puts rhetorical and transcultural questions on same level • Very open-ended interpretive questions Semester-Level Planning: Self-Training • Many instructors report feeling underprepared to “teach film” without a sound methodological and terminological background– but it can be quite easy to acquire such a background well beyond what this context requires – Leaving behind a monolithic idea of “teaching film” – There are no shortage of materials for giving yourself that background • Recommended reading for a quick inter-session crash-course: – Jessica Sturm, "Using Film in the L2 Classroom" (Foreign Language Annals, 2012) – The Signs and Syntax unit from James Monaco's The Language of Film (most recent edition, 2012)
• Use this as a reference to structure your self- training, but also your writing of lesson-plans • You can even translate this into L2 and offer it as a optional reading for more motivated students • Teach the tip of the iceberg and gesture to the rest, just as when you teach literature Planning at the semester scale: Mapping out a Program • Resist the temptation to teach formal analysis as an end unto itself (Pandora’s box!); always direct form to intention, subtext, and/or interpretation – Structure exercises around a small set of stylistic choices that reinforce one another and can readily be connected to relevant rhetorical and cultural meanings – “Formal analysis with the training wheels on” – suggest relevance • Terminology: best to give students a little more than they need upfront and let them choose (individually and collectively) how much of it to use – Collaborative analysis can be more natural with film, which is habitually viewed collectively – Italian 4 example: “rubric and ye shall receive!” Planning at the semester scale: Scope and range of a Sample Program Figure 4: A sample lesson-sequence Piloted in UC Berkeley's Spanish Department, Fall 2012 (fill out yours from LEFT to RIGHT!)
Cultural Analysis Goal Logic of the Exercise Thematic (cultural topics Supplemental (relevant formal analysis à Key Formal Aspects Film Genre Title and Director Unit supplemental to Formal Aspects thematic synthesis) thematic unit)
Show melodrama's clear-cut, Recognize alternative/ The Law of Desire exaggerated conventions of Sentimental Identity queer families; relativize Acting, Score Composition Lighting, acting, (Pedro Almodóvar, sympathy, interiority, and Melodrama gender norms 1987) identity; manipulation
Read cultural myths and Reading mise-en-scene as Sound design, The Southern Cross Montage, Voice-over, Historical Heritage conjectures ideological/polemic; reading lighting, body (Patricio Guzmán, composition fiction ideologically origin myths as same language 1992)
Show the deliberate and Think about narrative formally highlighted non- Historical Historical sympathy vis-à-vis Significant non-narrative Soundtrack, Machuca (Andrés narrative details and their drama, Memory political and background details pacing, chapter Wood, 2004) utility for sympathy and coming-of-age sympathy/identity historical interpretation
Treat documentary and De-naturalize the connotative Perspectival Camerawork, Handheld Judgment & Political Cocalero (Alej. nonfiction as rhetorical/ and persuasive aspects of Connotative camerawork camerawork, Prejudice documentary Landes, 2007) constructed documentary interviews & set design intertitles
Problematize standards "Realism" and Representation Discuss science fiction's Humor & of "realism" and access verisimilitude; of labor, Sleep Dealer (Alex conjecture mode in terms of Science Fiction Imagination to techn. & economic historical/political crowds, and Rivera, 2008) realist codes of verisimilitude opportunity conjecture urban spaces Example Lesson 2: Prejudice and Documentary Form
Link to LFLFC
• Explicitly asks students to connect style with persuasion and bias • Asks students to plan ahead to argumentative assignments – Formal “evidence” of bias and intention
• Asks students to analyze metaphorical language as persuasive • Asks students to parse perspective and feeling as stylistic effects • Foregrounds cultural subtexts
• Homework after the preceding discussion is to synthesize notes and prepare for a debate • Asks high-level interpretive questions without explicitly prompting for low-level evidence
Implications and Applicability
• Departmental and curricular specificity: always start at the beginning (& fill out Fig. 2!)
• Possible permutations as “loose” curriculum: Bridge course, “elective units”, intersession mini-courses, “film clubs”
• Self-training and teacher-training: pedagogy courses and curriculum Micro-Bibliography
Culture and Literacy in SLA • Kern, Rick. Literacy and Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Print.
Film theory and writing • Corrigan, Timothy. A Short Guide to Writing About Film. New York: Longman, 1998, 2010. • Corrigan, Timothy, and Patricia White. The Film Experience: An Introduction. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2004. Print. • Monaco, James. How to Read a Film: The World of Movies, Media, and Multimedia : Language, History, Theory. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981, 1992, 2000, 2009.
Film in SLA and Applied Linguistics Research • Kaiser, Mark. "New Approaches to Exploiting Film in the Foreign Language Classroom," in L2 Journal, 3:2 (2011). Retrieved from: http://escholarship.org/uc/item/6568p4f4 • O'Halloran, Kay. "Visual Semiosis in film", in Multimodal Discourse Analysis. London: Continuum, 2004. • Pegrum, Mark. "Film, Culture and Identity: Critical Intercultural Literacies for the Language Classroom," in Language and Intercultural Communication, vol. 8:2 (2008), pp. 136-154. • Sturm, Jessica L. "Using Film in the L2 Classroom: A Graduate Course in Film Pedagogy", in Foreign Language Annals, Vol. 45:2 (2012), pp. 246–259.